Lotus Year 70
The years had passed, and my lake was still far from being habitable like used to be, the water had become more turbid by now, losing the appearance of black paint that i saw wheni rermerged from the bottom of the lake, there still a long way to go before the things go back to the way they used to be, and one day things will be good again
My Earthward's are buried in the earth all throughout my roots, they weren't so self-funcitionals as the elementals, so when they ran out of energy they stood still all around the place like a bunch of earth statues all over the ground.
Because of this, I ended up losing 3 of my 5 Earthward's for the mother nature and zombie apocaliypse, and the ones that were left were heavily damaged, the damage on the body of the Earthward's wasn't a big deal for me at all, but the problem was that right now I'm in a period of low mana concentration to spend in "trivial things", so all the points of Mp who can be spared are welcome.
My elementals were out of the game too, because they needed to keep the water current around my body clean and constant, and that took a lot of energy from me and all the time from them, so using elementals as defenses was out of the game for now.
My only choice was to keep waiting and waiting, since my MP slowly regenerates naturally, it's only a matter of time until the water in the lake is completely purified again. The biggest problem of all was those annoying clouds that wouldn't go away, they continued to threaten me with lightning and thunders, but not a single drop of rain fell from the sky.
The clouds prevented me from having access to the sky, which prevented me from generating energy efficiently, and consequently I couldn't even generate star points, nor even purify the water quickly!
One of the main problems besides the clouds is the lack of nutrients in the soil and sunlight in this place, I need a fair amount of nutrients, large amounts of water, and a bit of sun to generate SP and MP, but the earth is sour and acidic, depleted from nutrients and life, so I can't get the nutrients I need from it. Water is a separate problem, as long as I have Mp I can generate my own water for personal consumption, but the quantities were astronomical. The bigger my body is, the more water I need, but now that my body size has been drastically reduced, I can survive on just a few liters a day.
Sunlight was a big problem too, there some light here, but it is very rare. I would say the sun only comes out every 5 days if I'm lucky. Because of this, my energy reserves and SP were always in the red mark, and I really need to keep purifiying the water, and that makes me rest all day to avoid fainting, my leaves also proved to be useless since they couldn't generate MP under these conditions, and my roots are weak and fragile due to long exposure to poison and lack of nutrients.
'I feel like I'm going to die.'
Like a fish struggling in a puddle of mud, there is no hope left for me, my only destiny now is death, and there is nothing more i can do but fight and fight with fate like a hopeless man.
'I'm thirsty, I'm hungry, I'm tired, weak, and sore... I just want this all to end soon.'
Looking at my options, I didn't have much to do, I only have 1842.1 star points, just enough to gain 1 skills, and I don't see any active skills that can help me, all I can do with the rest of these points is buy a considerable amount of Xp.
'If I can get enough Xp to unlock another specialization, then that could save me, right?'
My options are limited, and I'm not going to risk everything I have on a half-assed skill that could very well be something completely useless, random skills are well... random, so there's no point counting on a miracle skill that will save me, I I need something that really helps me.
Star Store
Do you want to use all your points to buy XP?
'Yes... Please help me.'
Notice
You have earned 10.000 XP points!
Notice
You have reached level 25! You gained the unique ability: Deity's Shrine
Ability
[Deity's Shrine] - Unique
Create a permanent sanctuary region, you become permanently linked to that region, gaining large bonuses in strength, vitality and mana regeneration depending on the energy concentration of the chosen place. If your sanctuary is heavily damaged or destroyed you will die.
Notice
You have reached level 26!
'Shit! What kind of weird ability is this? Is this what I get for choosing the {Water Sanctuary} specialization? It's okay that a sanctuary doesn't have legs and doesn't walk around... But becoming permanently linked to some place?... To that place?'
My problem wasn't settling permanently on the ground, I've already been trapped here since the very beginning , it's not like I was going to wrap myself in a bubble of water and go exploring the world, but this place is not the same green and healthy forest in which I was born, Now it's just a wasteland of death and blood, there's nothing for me here to fight for.
'I spent over 1800 points for just 10k XP? This is nonsense! And it's even more absurd that with 10k XP I only leveled up twice!'
Star Store Star Points: 0
Random skill: 1800 Star points - Or more
Random Title: 6000 Star points - Or more
Conversion: 10 MP - 0.1 Star Point / 160 Star Point - 10 XP
'Damn... Now buying Xp has also become expensive... I have no points, no skills that can save me, and I have no access to heaven, all I have is this strange ability that will make me permanently linked to this forgotten place by death itself...'
There aren't many choices, I need to survive at all costs, if that means I'll become eternally tied to a bunch of water and land, so let be it. Analyzing the skill, soon I discovered what i have to do, so I focus on the idea of binding myself to that region and soon a prompt appears in front of me.
Notice
Do you want to link your sanctuary to this region? Warning, this choice cannot be undone.
'Yes..?'
Notice
You set your sanctuary.
Right after thar, I could feel the difference almost immediately, I gained an improved sense, a greater perception of my surrondings and my MP started to rise quickly, I could feel my body getting stronger and healthier and my roots at the bottom of the lake penetrating deeper into the bottom of the lake more easily.
I could feel, feel things i have never felt before, i can feel everything that is in the water that my body touches, from the smallest speck of dirt in the bottom of the lake, to pieces of zombie bodies all over the surfice, the water currents running all the place coming from the river, larvae that live in the water, rocks and pieces of wood, algae and lime that grew in the pool, the smalest fish, just everything, I know exactly where everything is located.
'This is amazing!! My MP is rising quickly even without me having leaves to generate MP! I feel stronger, and I can even see everything around me!'
Having a sanctuary is cool and very powerful, but at what price?
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Lotus Year 73
Time passed, and the water in my lake began to become purer again, so much that the fish began to swim everywhere, Uchiki had became their leader whitout any conflict at all, since she was older and more experienced, the younger fish were always happy to be around her, if Uchiki stopped by to eat they would stop and eat with her, if she ran away they would run away without even asking why, Uchiki had became some kinde of ancient fish guardiam.
My new control over the lake and its surrondings was very peculiar, this caused the entire region of the lake to begin to be peacefully purified, in addition to making the entire region very humid and full of plants, the edge of the lake began to lose its sandy and lifeless texture and a bunch of things like grass and moss started appearing all over the place.
My sanctuary is like an extension of my very own skills, so the entire region is being affected by my powers, turning the place in a ideal place for small plants and life, the sanctuary have powers focused in my own skills, in particular my mastery over water and purification abilities, what turn the land around here very healthy and humid, slowly removing all the poison and rot that infiltrates the earth. Manipulating water is also much easier to use near my main body, and I can even summon some more water elementals.
The sanctuary saved me, but now I am permanently linked to this place, the environment around me is not to my liking right now? Yes, but I'm going to have to roll up my sleeves and work on this to ajust this place to match my preferences, because I'm not going anywhere now.
The sanctuary works like a kind of lamppost, the closer it is to my main body, the stronger the sanctuary's powers are, using magic at the edge of the lake is much more difficult than simply using magic in the center of the lake. I can create water waves, give complex shapes to water bubbles, create whirlpools, sheets of water, a water bubble that crushes everything that enters it, and even a small artificial rain cloud.
But only in the center of the lake, at the edge of the lake, all my magic started to become very unstable, and it became impossible to maintain more complex spells.
I also gave up on expanding the lake for now, and started my secret emergency plan A of Apocalypse. If I'm eternally tied to this place, then I need to find ways to security myselft no matter what. I'm tied to this region, but not this specific point where I'm located right now, so if an emergency happens, I can flee to the deepest point of the lake without affecting my sanctuary at all.
So I started an underwater cave project, I made my little Earthward's start creating a big secret space under the lake, and I'm using magic to stop the water from draining through the hole, and creating an entire cave that can serve as a bunker for me and my helpers in the future.
My plan is to create a cave capable of housing a small lake where the fish and I would reside in times of imminent apocalypse, and a land area full of plants and dirt where I intend to keep some animals alive to colonize the land surface again when the conditions outside the cave improve.
Because right now? Now I just have a bunch of zombies for neighbors, my friends deer, lions, tigers, monkeys, boars and rats have all been turned into zombies or fled to the hills, it could take decades for animal life to return to this region, but for that I need to get rid of these zombies first.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
A small lotus flower that grew horizontally on a vine bent in an unconventional position, opens its leaves and begins to charge a small ball of white light, soon a small orb of crackling light appears within the lotus flower that shoots a small beam of light passing through the head of a distracted zombie.
Notice
You gained 26 XP points
'One down, way more to go, these pests keep appearing, and to help me, my only ability to cause damage from a distance is weakened by the absence of sunlight, I'm having to spend an extra MP to keep the skill active.'
Zombies are extremely poisonous, and extremely fragile. A shot in the middle of the forehead already knocks them out, their flesh is very soft and easy to penetrate, and their skull looks like a watermelon rind since it's so fragile. So I can shoot them down with just 1 solar ray with minimal force right in the middle of the eyes.
'These shits are useless, I can't even use their bodies as nutrients because they are so poisonous, ugh. At least they're worth some Xp.'
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Lotus Year 77
Warning
The demon lord of plague was born.
'Who in the hell is demon lord of the plague? Could it be... Is this guy responsible for this zombie apocalypse? A new demon lord emerged, the last one was the demon lord of chaos, now he is a demon lord of plague, and coincidentally zombies appear a few years before his birth?'
Coincidentally my wooden ass, this guy is definitely the one to blame for all this shit that is happening, the black plague, the zombies, the lifeless land, the terrifying sky.
'I don't know why a new demon lord was born, the last one didn't do the job? What do these guys want to do? I guess I just need to wait for a new hero to come and kill this new demon lord.'
The days continued to pass, I just smashed zombies heads, and purified my lake more while my little workers dug the underwater cave.
The fish began to dominate the lake, now that they were without predators, they began to infest the lake, competing for food, and even fighting each other for supremacy over the lake. Little do they know that they are fighting for something that is already mine.
I started throwing the black potatoes out of the lake, and kept some in holes at the bottom of the lake, having a powerful and deadly poison is always welcome when someone tries to kill you. I've also discovered that these potatoes are quite enjoyable when they're not crowded and drenched in deadly zombie poison.
They took on a pleasant shade of begge, and had a holey interior, potatoes were a well-loved food source for the lake's axolotls, and could store more than just toxic substances, they could also put things like water and a type of sap inside them. .
The waters of the lake finally began to return to their former splendor, and now they also had a magical property. By using [Purified Wellspring] for a long time, the water gained a passive magical property, the ability to slowly heal those inside the water.
The magical water has a really cool ethereal glow, which attracts a lot of attention, but with my control over the waters, I was able to suppress this glow and even make it disappear, the water had a small concentration of mana that could be used at any time by me, and the more time I spend using [Purified Wellspring], the higher the concentration of mana in the water becomes.
The fish benefited from this, because they could use some water magic, so by using the magic of the environment around them they didn't need to use up their own MP reserves, which helped them survive and perfect their magical talents.
I could use the MP in the water as a kind of battery, if one day I needed to launch a super powerful attack that burned all my MP, I could pull all the MP from the lake to add more firepower to that attack, in addition to being able to use this MP in times of need, like when I needed energy to build more shields around the lake.
The magical waters also benefited the elementals, since with the greater concentration of mana in the location, it was easier for them to cast powerful spells without spending too much energy. Was all this magical energy coming from me? Of course, but it's still good to live in a region with a high concentration of mana.
I wouldn't say we're "swimming in mana", but I have enough MP to consider myself stable and safe, I don't lack MP, but I don't have much MP to spare, but I still have enough to not be in a mana crisis. As I looked at my status distracted, I could soon feel a sense of danger approaching, and looking towards the east I could soon see why.
'Damn... another one of those guys...'
What was coming was some kind of monster made of rotten flesh, the thing looked like a bunch of corpses of different species and sizes melted and united into a single creature, the thing was bringing with it a small army of zombies, and as it passed it left a trail of black goo behind.
I call them amalgams because they look like a poorly made amalgamation of living creatures. They are not fast, but they are very dangerous. Unlike ordinary zombies, these pieces of flesh glued together have a hard-to-penetrate skin, can release a cloud of rot that makes my leaves wither quickly, and they even use magic!
Not all of them, but depending on the type of creature they're made of, these shits can cast several strange little spells at once, or have varying innate powers.
Once I had to deal with an amalgamation that could throw acid balls, I ended up hurting myself in the process, but after a hail of solar beam Mr. pile of meat turned into Swiss cheese.
The most annoying thing about these creatures was that they seemed to hate life or any sign of healthy land. Because they started appearing only after the lake started to recover, and they always tried to poison and kill me.
'Come on pile of meat! Show me what you're capable of!'
Without letting me wait long, the amalgam soon stopped about 300 meters from the lake and started to tremble while preparing something for me, which was already a negative sign.
'Shit! Is this the magic caster type?!'
Soon the creature opened in the middle, and revealed a kind of flesh chamber full of mucus that housed dozens of faces of several different humanoid people, all of them were dead and half rotten, but in an instant they turned their eyes to me in synchrony and began to mutter something in a strange language.
'Damn it! This guy is dangerous!'
Wasting no time, I begin to summon a variety of wall lily pads between the two of us, and send my small group of water elementals into the fight while I secretly begin charging my solar rays to full power.
Soon a red magic circle appears in front of the amalgamation, and dozens of small blood-colored projectiles start flying towards me, most of them hit the lily pad shields and are stopped after breaking just 3 layers of shield, but some projectiles shamelessly change their trajectory, dodging the shields and running towards my core.
'Shit!' Pushing my core into the deepest part of the lake, soon the strange projectiles enter the water and tried to hit me, but since they entered my domain they had no chance, and were soon swept away by a current of water that I created around me.
The amalgam did not seem happy, and soon began having to deal with several small angry elementals throwing bullets, blades, and water projectiles at it. In response, the amalgam begins to emit a stunning and shrill cry that makes all the elementals begin to tremble and quickly dissolve into water.
As soon as the creature began to prepare to launch another attack, the lily pads shields dissipated to reveal 4 lotus flowers with huge and threatening-looking orbs of light. Upon realizing the danger of the thing, the amalgam tried to run, but its speed didn't allow it to go furter;
Firing the 4 light projectiles at the same time, they soon meet in the air and merge into a single super concentrated projectile, the amalgamation seeing the project arrive quickly gives up on his escape and begins to recite a strange spell while all the faces inside him begin to move and roll their eyes in impossible directions, soon the spell end up creating a field of black energy around himself that looks like some kinde of energy shild.
But soon the energy field proved to be useless, because soon as it was hit by the light projectiles, it was torn apart like paper, fragmenting into dozens of shards of black energy through the air while the abominations emitted a horrible, guttural cry. The last thing the amalgam saw was a large flash of light before it lost more than 60% of its body and dropped dead in the ground.
Notice
You gained 286 XP points
Before I could be happy about the kill, I was hit with the price to pay for using 4 solar rays using only MP. My body started to feel completely exhausted, and I felt drowsy.
'Damn... I need some sleep now... Damn zombies...'
----------------------------------------
Lotus Year 79
I slept for a few days when I defeated the amalgamation, I was lucky that no other amalgamations appeared in the meantime, and in the time that passed I just continued with my mission of purifying the lake. But now, a large strange group of people are coming towards me, they are carrying backpacks, riding strange animals and covered in cloaks, they seem to be heading towards the north but they don't look very good.
I would say that your group has at least 100 people, the entire group is in a circle formation, while the slowest and apparently youngest are in the middle, the strongest and most armed are on the edges preventing the zombies from advancing.
There is some people with strange staffs on top of red-eyed buffaloes launching magic projectiles at zombies and people shooting with strangely shaped bows and arrows, what catches the most attention in the group is that I can see that some members have horns sticking out of they heads, while others apparently lack horns.
The people on the edges of the circles are equipped with hammers, axes, swords, spears, whips and various other strange things. Soon I see a large horde of zombies led by larger and more threatening zombies approaching the group of strange people, and the group getting more and more tense, then a mysterious person comes out from the middle of the group carrying a thick book and starts reading the book.
The book then begins to emit a faint amber light, and its pages begin to run quickly with the words of the figure reading it, as if they were being blown by the wind, but there is no wind here today.
Soon the ground begins to shake around the group, and 2 earth giants sprout from the ground, their bodies made entirely of stone, hammer-shaped hands, expressionless flat heads, and some sort of exposed shiny crystal that glows on their chests.
The figure that summoned the giants soon vomits a large amount of blood onto the ground, but before falling he gives an order to his giants who begin to crush the zombie hordes as if they were insects. Then another group rushes to the figure who had fallen to the ground after apparently exhausting himself, and they take off their hoods.
The figure lying on the ground was a strange man with bronze skin, and bright red eyes, short white hair and 2 spirally curled horns like a sheep's. His clothes were full of blood and he looked weak and malnourished, but that didn't stop him from holding the book in his hands tightly.
The figures that ran up to him were apparently 3 women of varying ages, a woman with purple skin like an amethyst, pure black eyes and horns like an antelope, teal blue hair that barely reaches her neck, and a thin, skimpy body, something I recognize as the result of hunger and misery thanks to Green.
The other women were a girl who resembled the man lying on the ground, with brown skin like earth, dirty green hair that fell to her waist and pure yellow eyes, and the last woman seemed to be a child, with gray skin like stone, yellow eyes and white gray hair wrapped in a ponytail.
The women seemed very sad at the sight of the man lying on the ground, but soon everyone made way for a strange man with light green skin and black hair to pass. The man wasted no time and began reciting some strange words, which made the man lying on the floor possibly faint.
Soon the 2 adult women who came to the older man's aid took him by the arms and began to carry him with the rest of the group, soon I saw them approaching the lake while the earth giants who had already destroyed all the zombies nearby they began to fall apart on land again.
When the group arrived at the lake, they were mortified when they saw the surface of the lake, the water was pure and clear, filled with a few lotus leaves scattered occasionally around the lake, flowers that emitted a faint ethereal light illuminating the surrounding shields and showing a large amount of marine life that lives in the lake.
Some people tried to run to the lake, but they were soon stopped by some mysterious force that pulled them back and threw them to the ground, then among the group of mysterious beings a lady with grayish blue hair and gray skin, ocean blue eyes and point horns like those of a goat, carrying a strange staff that looked like a wooden truncheon that was wider at the tip and thinner at the base began to come out and scold the people who tried to approach the lake.
The lady then ordered everyone to move away and then began to invoke a magic circle in the air with a movement of her magic stick, then a small amount of water began to come out of the lake and fly towards the tin lady with goat horns who soon began to analyze the water.
She touched the water bubble that floated in front of her with caution and fear, but soon made an expression of surprise when the water began to glow slightly under her touch.
'Damn... The water got out of my control as soon as it left the lake, was I exposed?'
The strange lady didn't seem to suspect me, but rather was excited by the sparkling water and then walked vigorously towards the lake, without wasting any time she closed her eyes and began to concentrate on something.
Then I began to feel the energy of the lake being slightly drained, and my own sanctuary reacting to the phenomenon and amplifying it. Then the strange lady opened her eyes which were now glowing blue and made the entire lake start to shake with her energy.
'I didn't give you permission to do that!'
Soon I myself began to add my own control to the waterx which was far superior to that of the strange woman because soon I could feel my sanctuary stop amplifying the strange woman's powers and begin to suppress her, the woman was surprised when she realized that her control over the water was being "stolen" and the water in the lake began to calm down again and no longer followed her orders, no matter what she tried.
As she stared dumbly at the lake trying to understand what had happened, she turned to see her peers looking at her expectantly, she opened her mouth to say something, but before anything else a large pillar of water rose from the middle of the lake, surprising everyone present.
The pillar of water defies gravity, falling upwards rather than downwards, glowing ethereally with light blue lights in the middle of the darkness as several lotus flowers begin to emit a brighter glow and create small balls of light at their top, soon the pillar opens like stage curtains to reveal cute little fish that float delicately toward the crowd in a harmonious and elegant way.
The people present were overjoyed and tried to advance towards the lake, but the lady with the goat horns was mortified, and was breaking out into a cold sweat as she actively stopped her peers from approaching the creatures.
Soon a dense fog starts to appear out of nowhere behind the people near the lake, and when they look back all that comes is a dense fog that clearly wasn't there until a few seconds ago, sounds of laughter and whispers start to come from every place, frightening everyone present and making them fall to their knees on the floor.
The only one standing was the lady with the goat's horns, and a few people who were soon pulled to the ground by their families. From the middle of the lake, the pillar of water begins to open again to reveal a strange, even humanoid figure. The creature assumed the basic form of a human being, having 2 arms and a head. But the rest of her body was just a bunch of water that connected her to the lake like a kind of dress made entirely of water.
Its expression was blank and without details, just a ball of water that clumsily tries to imitate human features, and soon the creature begins to slide along the surface of the lake until it reaches the edge, halfway through, her shape began to "stabilize", gaining more details, such as well-defined arms that moved all the time like water currents, and a dress entirely made of waves of water that flowed at all times so the amysterious creature that soon after reaching the edge gestures with her hand towards the lady with goat horns, who just stands mortified in place with tears in her eyes.
Annoyed, the creature makes a delicate gesture with its hand, which makes the small group of water fish take on the form of threatening fishes with fangs. The water fishes then run towards the goat woman and begin to cling to her arms and legs.
The woman momentarily thought she would be devoured by the fishes, but soon she could see that there was no damage to her flesh, and the water fishes began to shake and deform into handcuffs and chains made of water, which soon start flying to the lake and connect's to the lake,after a few moments the chains begin to be pulled to the bottom of the lake and the woman begins to despair as she is pulled against her will.
The woman tried to resist and scream, but nothing helped, soon she was pulled into the lake, but surprisingly she did not sink into the water, but began to be dragged across the surface of the lake as if it were a floor made of marble.
Soon she was in the presence of the lady of the lake, the lady just took her chin indelicately with a single hand, and looked straight into her eyes. Evaluating or judging her in some starge way. The lady of the lake then gently took the woman's head with both hands and gently placed her forehead against the woman's forehead.
A small glow could be seen coming from the scene, as a small teal mark appeared on the woman's forehead. Without understanding anything, the woman tried to speak to the lady of the lake, demanding answers. But all she did in response was slowly sink into the lake, disappearing along with the water currents, fishes and the fog.
At the end of it all, the woman began to gently sink into the lake, until the water reached her knees, she then just stared in awe at the lake while her peers ran to her to try to help.
But everyone was afraid to enter the lake, and once again awaken the lady of the lake.